Abstract
This practice-based research explores how artistic methodologies can make the hidden multispecies and ecological consequences of dairy production perceptible within the domestic sphere. It begins from the tension between the sanitised imagery and familiar cultural associations surrounding milk and the animal, bodily and ecological realities that become obscured behind the finished product. The research asks: How can artistic methodologies make the hidden ecological and multispecies consequences of dairy production perceptible, while disrupting their normalisation within the domestic sphere?Through art practice as research, the study develops Wombling and Disruptive Realism as artistic methodologies for gathering, reconfiguring and disrupting familiar domestic objects and environments. Informed by ideas of perceptual activism, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, and Donna Haraway’s concepts of sympoiesis, tentacular thinking and response-ability, the practice uses domestic materials to reconnect the everyday product with the animal bodies, labour and ecological systems from which it emerges.
The resulting sculptural installation and accompanying artist’s book, The Daily Churn, transform gathered domestic objects into material witnesses of dairy production. Fridges, milk containers, textiles, furniture and found fragments are reconfigured to create spatial and sensory friction, while participatory magnetic poetry invites viewers to move beyond passive spectatorship.
The research proposes that artistic intervention can interrupt habitual ways of seeing and create moments in which the relationships concealed within everyday consumption become perceptible. Rather than providing a moral or instructional solution, the work seeks to open a space for reflection, participation and response-ability within the domestic sphere.
| Date of Award | 3 Sept 2026 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Simon Woolham (Main Supervisor) & Rowan Bailey (Co-Supervisor) |